The camaraderie of this year’s team was never more evident than towards the end of practice today.
After traveling back from Saskatchewan all day, Nino* arrived at the Coliseum as the Winterhawks were winding up practice. When the players saw him, they mobbed him. Every player came over and hugged him and congratulated him for his success at the tournament. They couldn’t have been happier for his success.
It was a great moment that encapsulated how close this team is. These guys genuinely like each other, and root for each other’s success. Even when Luke Walker comes back with his gold medal and starts giving the Canadians on the team the business, they’ll be happy for him.
Speaking of Nino, check out KGW’s 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts tonight. Joe Becker was at practice today and interviewed Mike Johnston along with Nino, Brad Ross and Ryan Johansen for a story about their line’s success this season. We’ll be in a few other places with the media this week as well, which I’ll post once we confirm a few things.
*From now on, I bestow Nino the honor of going by one name. He’s earned it.
I don’t know if Brad Ross has many leather-bound books and an apartment that smells of rich mahogany, but he is kind of a big deal.
Brad Ross earned the WHL’s Player of the Month Award for December today, a well-deserved honor for a player really coming into his own right now. With Nino Niederreiter and Luke Walker away, he and Ryan Johansen have shouldered the scoring load in their absence and helped the Winterhawks maintain their hold on second place in the division and third in the conference. He’s also the only player in the league leading his team in both scoring and penalty minutes.
Before long, he and Johansen will be reunited with their usual linemate, Niederreiter. The Swiss team’s miraculous run to the medal round came to an end today with a loss to Sweden, but given they had to play their way into the tournament last year, fourth place is no small feat. With Niederreiter having two more years of eligibility left, Switzerland will be able to build around him and keep the momentum rolling in future years.
When he gets back, he’ll find himself in the thick of rookie scoring race with Johansen. Nino had been leading the league before leaving, but having missed the last six games he’s fallen to fifth. Johansen has taken the lead (with Vancouver’s Kevin Connauton) , and it promises to be a tight race down the stretch. When was the last time one team had players finish 1-2 in the Rookie of the Year race? It could happen with Portland this year with Nino and Johansen (with either a solid candidate to be #1).
In addition to the Rookie of the Year Award, all three players are strong candidates to be first round picks in June’s NHL Draft. Having three players get taken in the first round is incredible, but all of them linemates? It’s staggering when you think about it.
Anyway, getting back to the World Juniors for a second, the final between Canada and the U.S. gets underway in about an hour. The team pushed back practice a bit today so the players could come right off the ice, shower and hunker down in the lounge to watch the game. The Americans in the locker room are grossly outnumbered, with Taylor Aronson, Mac Carruth and Seth Swenson the sole Americans on the roster (although Gasper Kopitar spent the last several years living in Los Angeles). They can expect any amount of grief if Canada prevails (again).
As of about 6 p.m. last night, the Winterhawks had three players at the arena. The game, of course, had been scheduled for 7 p.m. So yeah, it was a strange night.
The surprise snow storm that caused panic in the streets wreaked havoc with yesterday’s game, resulting in a unique night we hope we don’t have a repeat of any time soon.
At various times there were rumors that players had given up on driving and were taking the Max, radio broadcasts were supposedly saying the game was canceled, the WHL’s live Web stream said the game was cancelled, and oh yeah, we had no referees.
While I can’t confirm whether players actually took the Max (I didn’t hit the locker room last night for quotes so I didn’t get a chance to ask), there were any number of other oddities that took place:
-The refereeing crew, coming mostly from the Seattle/Everett area, were stuck in traffic and had no hope of arriving at the Rose Garden in time. To their eternal credit, the local guys packed their gear and gave up a night off to brave the traffic and work a game they hadn’t spent any time mentally or physically preparing for. It led to an odd situation midway through the first period when the original crew finally made it, leading to a referee shift change.
-In addition to the on-ice refs, the off-ice officials were working with a skeleton crew as well. Their contributions can’t be overlooked- they run the clocks, the scoreboard, the penalty boxes, keep score and update the WHL stats in real time. But short a few bodies, we had our Sponsorship VP Sam Hicks working the Spokane penalty box in the first period, and WAHA coach Ben Stadey doing plus/minus.
-At one point, reports started coming in that a local radio station was reporting the game canceled. Only problem was, we didn’t know which station. Since there’s dozens of stations in the metro area, it was a needle in a haystack trying to sort out who was saying what, leading to numerous phone calls and e-mails trying to set the record straight. Speaking of radio, the conditions prevented a board operator from getting to Freedom 970’s studio, meaning we couldn’t get the game on radio.
-And speaking of broadcasts, we found out at one point the WHL live stream was saying the game had been canceled. Just another fire to put out.
-Of course, while all of these things were happening we had to figure out when, or even if, the game would start. By 7:45 we had enough players at the rink to field a team (as Tayler Jordan and Oliver Gabriel came sprinting in from the parking lot), and the decision was made at that point to start at 8:45.
Not a typical Tuesday night game.
At any rate, it ended up being a great game, and Brad Ross and Ryan Johansen continued their amazing hot streak. With four points last night Ross has moved atop team scoring with 43 points. He had six points in the home-and-home set with the Chiefs over the last three days, and has put up 12 points in his last six games. Johansen had three points last night, and has 15 in 10 games this month. He’s now tied for fourth among WHL rookies in scoring.
For fans who couldn’t make it last night, we will honor your tickets at an upcoming game. Come by the Winterhawks ticket office or the Rose Quarter box office and you’ll be provided seats to a future regular season game.
Hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. Since I know everyone’s dying to know, mine began with a trip to Vancouver to see my Canucks take on the St. Louis Blues. Sadly, my presence in the building did nothing to inspire them, as they played a thoroughly unwatchable game en route to a 3-1 loss. Their only loss in the last five games, by the way.
I also came to discover I really like that “Empire State of Mind” song by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. I can’t decide if I should be embarrassed or not. For now I’ll say I’m not, but I reserve the right to change my mind and delete this paragraph later. Don’t think I haven’t done that before.
One more surprising fact from the holidays: according to WordPress’s stats, this blog had 43 visits on December 25. I can’t help but feel sorry for the 43 people so desperate to escape their family on Christmas that they had to kill time by visiting a blog I’d already said a week earlier would go dark for the holidays.
At any rate, the boys came back from their break with a nice comeback win last night in Spokane, getting three third period goals for a big road win in Spokane that gave the Hawks sole possession of second place in the division (although the Chiefs have four games in hand). There was also a bit of an imbroglio towards the end of the game, and it’ll be interesting to see if any hard feelings from those fisticuffs carry over to the rematch tomorrow.
It’s a busy week here, with four home games in a span of six days, a stretch only slightly less brutal than sitting through a Two and a Half Men marathon. Anyway, in case you missed it last week, here are some news items that hit the wires over the holidays, one about some additional televised games, and another about three players invited to play in the NHL/CHL Prospects game.
Also, don’t forget the New Year’s Eve game Thursday starts at 8 p.m. It gives fans with other plans a chance to get to their party after the game, or fans can hang out with us and skate with the team. In addition to the skating Vrooman Sr. and Jr. will be hosting a live post-game show at center ice as people skate around them. They’ll be interviewing players and coaches, and you can submit a question by e-mailing it to hockey@winterhawks.com.
The Winterhawks host Swift Current tonight and Tri-Cities Saturday, then our office closes for a week for the WHL’s winter break. As such, the blog will close with it. See you the week of the 28th. Happy holidays.
Gasper Kopitar is currently playing for Slovenia at the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Under-20 Division I Tournament in Megève & Saint-Gervais, France, and this morning Slovenia beat Japan 4-1 for their first win of the tournament after opening with losses to Denmark (3-0) and Germany (6-0).
Slovenia is in Group A of their tournament, which also includes Germany, Denmark, France, Ukraine and Japan. Group B includes Kazakhstan, Belarus, Norway, Italy, Poland and Croatia. The winner of the tournament will then be promoted to the top division of the World Under-20 Tournament in 2011.
Kopitar and his teammates take on Ukraine Saturday and France Sunday as they try to advance to the playoffs.
You can follow the progress of Kopitar and his teammates here, and check out pictures here.
It’s not often Winterhawks fans can be excused for cheering for Seattle*, but tonight is one of those nights.The Thunderbirds play host to the Spokane Chiefs tonight and can help the Winterhawks on two fronts:
1: Beating the Chiefs, thus keeping Portland in second place (they’re currently one point ahead of the hard-charging Chiefs), and thereby burning one of the four games in hand Spokane holds.
2: Beating up the Chiefs, tenderizing them for the game tomorrow against the Winterhawks. If Seattle can come out and punish the Chiefs tonight, which would then be followed by a late night bus ride across the state, it could give Portland a nice edge in tomorrow’s game. The team is en route to Spokane this afternoon, and should be settled in to their hotel by the time the puck even drops at ShoWare tonight.
Then again, Portland holds one other advantage in tomorrow’s game: they’ll be on the road. In the four games between Portland and Spokane this season, the road team has won each time:
10/02/09 – Portland 5 @ Spokane 3
10/31/09 – Portland 2 @ Spokane 0
11/01/09 – Spokane 3 @ Portland 0
12/06/09 – Spokane 5 @ Portland 4
However, Portland will be without a few key players tomorrow. Spencer Bennett didn’t make the trip due to his ankle injury, and Luke Walker will be getting on a plane tomorrow, injured face and all, to attend Team USA’s world junior tryout camp. And in case you’re wondering, Nino Niederreiter leaves Saturday for Switzerland’s world junior camp, meaning he’ll be unavailable for the showdown with first place Tri-Cities Saturday night.
*Another time it’s ok to cheer for Seattle: the Mariners. And frankly, what a great few weeks for that team, assuming the deal for Cliff Lee goes through. Now they’ll have Ichiro and Chone Figgins at the top of the order, and Felix and Cliff Lee at the top of the rotation, while the Angels have been weakened by the losses of Figgins and John Lackey. Can it be April already please?
Every morning I cull together links on both the Winterhawks and WHL for the front office. Having been out of the office Friday, I had three days’ worth to go through today, and had the most Winterhawk-related links I can remember in the year I’ve been doing it. So if you need a Winterhawks media fix, go nuts:
(PS- I know pasting the link under the headline instead of embedding it isn’t the most aesthetically pleasing route, but hopefully we can still be friends.)
Game recaps:
Portland 2, Everett 0: Winterhawks notch a win before their lineup shifts:
http://www.oregonlive.com/hawks/index.ssf/2009/12/portland_2_everett_0_winterhaw.html
Goalie Curtis leads Portland to 2-0 win over Everett:
http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=126079151253493700
Winterhawks stop Silvertips:
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20091213/SPORTS/712149909/1003/SPORTS08
Ams down Winterhawks 5-3:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/1012/story/828272.html
Memorial Coliseum articles:
Blazers-Winterhawks propose Memorial Coliseum overhaul:
Winterhawks join Rose Quarter talks:
http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/12/07/daily35.html
Winterhawks join Trail Blazers in plan to rejigger Memorial Coliseum:
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/12/winterhawks_join_trail_blazers.html
Outdoor skate:
In-house feature:
Hockey team hits frozen pond for practice (scroll down in the menu box below the video player):
http://www.kptv.com/video/index.html
Winterhawks hold their practice outdoors:
http://www.katu.com/sports/79101747.html
Winterhawks skate on frozen Portland pond:
General Winterhawks links:
Spencer Bennett interview on 1080 The Fan:
http://audio.1080thefan.com/m/audio/27859174/spencer-bennett-lw-winterhawks-12-10-09.htm
Top 10 WHL prospects for 2010:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/11670/top10_whl_prospects_for2010/
The Winterhawks help out at Union Gospel Mission:
http://www.kgw.com/thesquare/The-Winterhawks-help-out-at-Union-Gospel-Mission-79024152.html
Elsewhere, Luke Walker ran through some individual drills today with a full face shield less than a week after his gruesome facial injury. Even though he’s still in a fair bit of pain, Walker is leaving Wednesday for Grand Forks to take part in Team USA’s tryout camp for the World Juniors. Give him credit, he’s a gamer.
Here’s a few more notes:
- Nino Niederreiter reached the 20-goal plateau in yesterday’s 2-0 win over Everett. Niederreiter became the first Winterhawk rookie to reach 20 goals since Jannik Hansen had 24 goals in 64 games in the 2005-06 season. Niederreiter has 37 points on the season, which continues to lead not only all WHL rookies, but all rookies across the 60-team CHL.
- Niederreiter is one of several rookies having great seasons for the Winterhawks, as four first-year players rank among the top-20 rookie scorers in the league: Niederreiter (1st - 37 points), Ryan Johansen (6th - 31 points), Spencer Bennett (tied for 13th - 20 points) and Ty Rattie (19th - 18 points). Rattie has been playing well of late, with six points in his last four games. Rattie’s stretch includes a three-point game against Spokane and a two-goal game against Tri-Cities.
- With injuries and players leaving for international tournaments, the Winterhawks have had to make a few roster moves. The team recalled Joel Ridgeway Friday, and he suited up in the two weekend games. Today the Winterhawks recalled Taylor Peters from the Penticton Vees of the British Columbia Hockey League. Peters had eight points for the Winterhawks last season, and appeared in three games this season before going to the BCHL. Peters has six points in 17 games with Penticton this season.
Tough break for Luke Walker last night, who was on the business end of a clearing attempt gone bad. An Everett player turned and fired the puck to get it down the ice, and Walker found himself in the line of fire. The puck hit him in the mouth area and was severe enough that he required surgery this morning at Legacy Emanuel Hospital. We’ll keep you posted on his status as we get updates.
Meanwhile, Spencer Bennett is out indefinitely with an ankle injury, and Jacob Berglund is also nursing a sore leg.
While Berglund’s injury isn’t expected to cause him to miss much time, if any at all, Bennett’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time. The WHL released the list of players set to leave their teams for international competition over the next few weeks, and Portland is one of just two teams, along with Spokane, set to lose five players:
-Even before his injury, the Hawks were set to lose Walker to the U.S. world junior tryout camp before Christmas, and if he made the team, for a few games after Christmas.
-Like Walker, Nino Niedderreiter has been invited to his country’s world junior tryout camp, and he’ll miss games next weekend to head to camp. Niederreiter has an excellent chance at cracking the roster, which would keep him away from the team until January 9 at the earliest.
-Ty Rattie and Tyler Wotherspoon will be heading to the World U-17 tournament in Timmins, Ontario after Christmas, and like Niederreiter and possibly Walker they’ll be gone until the Jan. 9 game.
-Gasper Kopitar has already left the Winterhawks to play for Slovenia in the Div. I portion of the World Junior tournament as he hopes to help Slovenia qualify for the A pool next year.
The Winterhawks catch a bit of a break with Kopitar’s absence not overlapping with the others, but now with Bennett possibly out for that time period with his ankle injury, the Winterhawks could be missing up to five regulars for the stretch of games immediately after Christmas. The five games between Christmas and Jan. 9 include four divisional matchups, and a game against the East Division-leading Saskatoon Blades. Of course, most teams lose players at that time of year, but Bennett’s injury just exacerbates the issue for Portland.
One could argue it was bound to happen; the Winterhawks have been relatively fortunate on the injury front this year. Only Oliver Gabriel and Ian Curtis have missed significant time, while Ty Rattie and Riley Boychuk missed a few weeks each, so the law of averages was bound to catch up. That doesn’t make it any easier to swallow though.
The Winterhawks will have to find a way to fill those roster spots for a few weeks. Kopitar is certainly a good bet, and the Hawks would love to have Oliver Gabriel back, but whether he’s cleared by the doctors in time is another matter. At any rate, Mike Johnston and his staff had already been preparing for filling the roster, they might just need to widen the search now.
Five points.
That’s what separates first from fourth in the U.S. Division right now, and that doesn’t even take into account Seattle, who are 6-4 in their last 10 games, including a four-game winning streak. Consider that in the Central Division, there are 17 points separating first from fourth.
Portland, Tri-City, Spokane and Everett are packed tighter than Tiger Woods’s little black book.
That makes this current stretch much more than a normal month of hockey. Portland is in the midst of a stretch where they are playing nine divisional opponents in a row (including a loss to TC and two wins vs. Seattle last week), and a total of 13 of 14, with a matchup against Travis Bobbee and the Swift Current Broncos on Dec. 18 the lone inter-division game.
While Winterhawks players won’t cop to scoreboard watching (more on that on winterhawks.com in the next day or two), no one can blame them if they did a quiet celebration after Everett’s loss to Kelowna last night.
In the U.S. Division this season, the story is goaltending. Look at these numbers:
James Reid, Spokane: 2.03 GAA, 92.9% save percentage
Drew Owsley, Tri-City: 2.85 GAA, 90.6% SP
Thomas Heemskerk, Everett (17 games): 2.90 GAA, 90.9% SP
Kent Simpson, Everett (12 games), 2.35 GAA, 92.5% SP
Calvin Pickard, Seattle: 2.84 GAA, 91.9% SP
Looking at the league stats, that puts three U.S. Division goalies in the league’s top-four in save percentage, and four among the top-eight in goals against average.
That means one of two things: either this is a halcyon year for goaltending in the U.S. Division, or we’re about to see the law averages kick in and some of those numbers start to dip. If it’s the former, then it makes Portland’s second place standing all the more impressive since they’re beating some of the best goalies in the league, and there’s no reason to believe it can’t continue. If it’s the latter, then Portland will only benefit from opposing goalies coming back to Earth.
At any rate, with so many divisional games coming up there could be plenty of movement within the division by the time the calendar turns to 2010. On the other hand, the teams could just continue beating each other up and we may end up being no closer to figuring out who will finish where. Either way, it’s going to make for an exciting month of hockey.
